Exploring Peace

Our RE unit of study in the Autumn term was considering the BIG QUESTION: What is the good news that Christians believe Jesus brings? As part of this we thought about the peace that Christians believe Jesus brings them. We all created pictures using a range of media: water colours, chalks, pastels, crayons of places that bring us peace.

Forest Schools fire

Whilst we were learning about the Great Fire of London we set up a fire in Forest Schools. Mrs Noden lit the fire in the fire pit and we added some materials to see how flammable they were; this linked to our science work about properties of materials and also our understanding of why buildings burnt so quickly during the Great Fire of London. We added a metal bolt, a piece of fabric, straw, glass pebbles and a stone. The children spoke about what it would have been like in London whilst the fire was burning.

The Great Fire of London

In Autumn term 2 we learnt about the Great Fire of London, we explored picture artefacts, learnt about the timeline of the fire, spoke about the causes and learnt about how things changed in London as a result of the fire. The children were involved in a number of hands on activities and enjoyed finding out about Samuel Pepy’s diary!

Properties of materials

We learnt about the properties of materials and explored the properties of bending, twisting, stretching and squishing.

Learning about 2D shape

We learnt the names of common 2D shapes including trapezium, pentagons and hexagons. We also explored the properties of these shapes in many practical activities.

Our Class visit to Stafford High House

Back in November we went on a “Great Fire of London” visit to the High House in Stafford. We learnt a lot about the differences between life during the time of the Great Fire of London and modern life. The children in class 2 were able to experience through hands – on activities the causes of the Great fire, why it spread so quickly and what changed as a result of the fire.

How to catch a dragon

As the hook for our new English talk for writing unit we found a poster on our classroom door stating that a dragon had been spotted in Hodnet. We went out into the school grounds to be detectives and search for clues that the dragon had been in school; we found scratch marks, scorch marks and a dragons egg when we returned to the classroom! We logged our findings on see saw and then helped Miss Manton create a text map for an instruction text: How to trap a Dragon.

Art inspired by Vincent VanGough

We were artists inspired by Vincent Van Gough on Wednesday! Miss Manton showed us different pieces of art work by the artist Vincent Van Gough, we talked about what we noticed about the artwork and then were inspired to create or own versions of “A starry night.”

When I grow up….

We read a great new book written by Rob Biddulph called “When I grow up” and talked about the different things we would like to be when we grow up. All the children created pictures of themselves dressed up to “go to work” and we all wrote letters to ourselves about the things we would like to do when we are grown up. These letters are to be opened when we are 18.

We also spent the time in playing at a selection of careers: some of us designed buildings and then made models of them in the “architects office”, some of us wrote, illustrated and published our own books in the “Authors office”, some of us created fitness plans in the “Hodnet Fitness Studio”. Whilst others of us worked in the “Hodnet Design studio” designing and making costumes for a selection of dolls and finally some of us worked in the ice cream shop with money. We had a lot of fun playing “when I grow up”!